PWinsider reported last night and Meltzer confirmed on his audio show last night that Drew McIntyre and Wade Barrett's work visas expired and they're now prohibited from working in the United States. (I don't want to link to PWinsider because of the spy's ware.)

This is why McIntyre was deported on Smackdown and why Barrett wasn't on Raw. This is apparently not as serious as the Angelina Love thing in TNA because she got in trouble for working for a long time without ever getting a visa. But neither speculated on how long it takes to clear up an expired work visa. But it's a pretty serious problem for the NXT angle, especially since they already lost Daniel Bryan due to similar albeit weirder company incompetence.

If it comes out that McIntyre was supposed to win Money in the Bank, that would be extra-hilarious to lose two Moneys in the Bank and near-guaranteed world title reigns in the span of four months. Drew was supposed to do everything Jack Swagger did but they gave it to Swagger instead; I don't know if it was because they knew they could just give him another briefcase in July or they're just down on him overall and he wouldn't have won. The funniest suggestion I heard was for McIntyre to win the briefcase, lose when he cashes it in, and for Vince to keep decreeing that it didn't count and giving him new briefcases, where he continues to mess up his sneaky title shots and something always goes wrong.

Yeah I do think the last thing you said was where they'd end up going with it. I don't really believe McIntyre was ever supposed to win Money in the Bank, they have a history of pushing people hard and then forgetting about them or jobbing them out for a while. Like.. Swagger.

The nXt angle shouldn't be affected TOO hard if he's only out a few weeks. He can tape promos from England and every week have an excuse about why he's not there. He's gathering info! He's fighting a suspension! It'd be not horrible.

This couldn't have just popped up and taken everyone by surprise. I'd imagine someone at WWE had to know this was a possibility and I can't believe it wasn't taken care of sooner, especially knowing how it could potentially sink the Nexus angle.

I'd almost wonder if it's better to just suspend the whole group on next week's Raw and just put this angle on hold until Barrett (and maybe even Bryan) comes back. You can't have David Otunga run around as the de facto leader. You just can't.

Originally posted by It's FalseThis couldn't have just popped up and taken everyone by surprise. I'd imagine someone at WWE had to know this was a possibility and I can't believe it wasn't taken care of sooner, especially knowing how it could potentially sink the Nexus angle.

But the angle has only been going for three weeks, so it certainly could have only come up or been cared about recently.

Stronger argument for Drew McIntyre, as the timing of "Teddy Long is at his lowest, and then gets all his power back and gets rid of Drew" seemed to progress pretty smoothly to this point.

It is the policy of the documentary crew to remain true observers and not interfere with its subjects."Well. Shit." -hansen9j

Click me to learn more than you ever wanted to know about work visas. My cursory glance tells me that someone in the WWE office dropped the ball, but I'd also say that if I were in Barrett's or McIntyre's shoes (and given my natural disposition to not being mellow about details) I would have been nagging somebody night and day about the visa for about 3 months before it expired.

Originally posted by Bryan AlvarezAs talked about yesterday on the new edition of Wrestling Observer Radio (which is a FREE download today off the right-hand side of the front page), both Drew McIntyre and Wade Barrett are having visa issues. Based on the way they shot the angles on TV, it appears at the time they had no idea when Drew's problems would be cleared up and they hoped Barrett would be back by next week's Raw. Unfortunately, as of this afternoon the word we've gotten is that creative has been told to presume both won't be back until after SummerSlam, which is a complete disaster particularly in the case of Barrett as the standout performer in Nexus. Granted, they could be back sooner, but either way heads are going to roll. It also sucks for McIntyre because he was scheduled to win the briefcase at WrestleMania and then that got changed, and he was scheduled to win it again at Money in the Bank and now he may not be able to work that show either. One of our readers said they saw McIntyre in Scotland on Saturday night, so apparently he's back home.

Originally posted by Bryan AlvarezAs talked about yesterday on the new edition of Wrestling Observer Radio (which is a FREE download today off the right-hand side of the front page), both Drew McIntyre and Wade Barrett are having visa issues. Based on the way they shot the angles on TV, it appears at the time they had no idea when Drew's problems would be cleared up and they hoped Barrett would be back by next week's Raw. Unfortunately, as of this afternoon the word we've gotten is that creative has been told to presume both won't be back until after SummerSlam, which is a complete disaster particularly in the case of Barrett as the standout performer in Nexus. Granted, they could be back sooner, but either way heads are going to roll. It also sucks for McIntyre because he was scheduled to win the briefcase at WrestleMania and then that got changed, and he was scheduled to win it again at Money in the Bank and now he may not be able to work that show either. One of our readers said they saw McIntyre in Scotland on Saturday night, so apparently he's back home.

I re-iterate: Anonymous GM needs to suspend the Nexus guys ASAP and this angle needs to be shelved until they can get Barrett back. They already have a potential out, because someone already pointed out in the Raw thread that Jerry Lawler's technically a WWE superstar.

Originally posted by Rudoublesedoublel Click me to learn more than you ever wanted to know about work visas. My cursory glance tells me that someone in the WWE office dropped the ball, but I'd also say that if I were in Barrett's or McIntyre's shoes (and given my natural disposition to not being mellow about details) I would have been nagging somebody night and day about the visa for about 3 months before it expired.

This. How the hell does this even happen? The WWE's biggest angle in years and someone blew it?

Good thing they didn't have McIntyre carrying either the briefcase or even worse the title belt when this came up.Benoit had this issue when he was in ECW in the late winter/early spring '95 and was able to be in WCW by late summer/early fall '95. Wonder if this problem would have occurred if a political campaign wasn't occurring where illegal workers could be used against the McMahon's?

I honestly expect this from Paul Heyman and TNA. I do love how this NXT angle was going to be the biggest thing ever and now the WWE has once again shot themselves in the foot. It would make zero sense to suspend the NXT guys, because won't they just go rogue again? The only way to save this is to finally reveal who the real leader is at Money in the Bank and go from there. It might restart it, but at this point they lose the two ready to be made stars for who knows for how long. I can only wonder what other locker room or management bullshit decision will cost the NXT guy? Its time once again to acknowledge that Vince can really do no right unless its the Mania build and even then its been mainly a one or two match event.